St. Guthlac's Barrow Takeover

I just ran across something interesting that isn't mentioned in the usual online sites, so maybe it's something other Tolkien fans would find interesting.

St. Guthlac of Crowland was a warrior who repented of various things (including raiding), and went off and became a hermit. He set up his hermit hut, and a cross, on top of a burial barrow.

He has a Latin life, upon which a couple of Old English poems were based. These poems are called Guthlac A and Guthlac B.

Guthlac A is all about Guthlac setting up as a hermit. An angel and a devil argue with him over what he should do, and he listens to the angel.

Subsequently, when Guthlac moves onto the barrow, tons of demons threaten him and argue with him, trying to trick him with their "harm-songs" and illusions, as well as with depression and other mental attacks.

Guthlac tells them off repeatedly, and keeps pointing out that he serves God and has an angelic bodyguard. (Very much in the tradition of desert monk narratives, like St. Athanasius' Life of Anthony -- ie, St. Anthony the Abbot, in Egypt.)

There's also a big "temptations of the world" vision/experience that is related. Later, he is even brought to the gates of Hell. At that point, God sends an apparition of St. Bartholomew to tell off the demons, and they meekly obey and bring Guthlac home safe. The birds show up to the now-blessed barrow, and become pets of St. Guthlac.

This is a considerably more interestingly evil portrayal of barrow ghosts than your average draugr (or Hervor's concerned dead dad, who's apparently a better guy dead than alive, although Hervor is pretty wild herself).

And honestly, these demons, trying to get back their barrow home, are more like the barrow-wight than the draugr seem to be. Expelling the demons seems similar to what Bombadil did to the barrow-wight.

Here's a link to Rutgers' online translation of Guthlac A.